Most of us are not in community with the doctors we deal with nowadays. They are not good friends, they don't tend to be fellow church goers. They work and generally live at some distance. They are professionals, which means they do highly specialized or technical procedures for pay- as opposed to amateurs, that word literally meaning lovers, ones who do the things they do out of love. And though I appreciate the role of professional physicains a great deal, I also feel the need to know, when I'm sick, that I'm loved.


"The community is the smallest unit of health" (and well-being), says farmer-essayist Wendell Barry. I was fighting off a cold earlier this week and tired to avoaid contact with others. I did what I should have done. God is real, but so are germs, and I figure, why spread them around if I don't have to? Still, over the long haul, noe of us can ever be well in isolation frim one another. The smallest category of wellness is community, NOT the individual in isolation.

When I was a child, Doc Kinzie, our family doctor, was the most trusted, revered person we knew. He was also a member of our church. His wife Geneva taught high school English literature and was a licensed minister in the Church of the Brethren. She sometimes preached in the pulpit; sometimes Doc did too. In our church, there was no contradiction between modern medicine and belief in God; between women in leadership roles and our read of the Bible; hardly any contradiction between things secular and sacred. Sure, mean people exisited, graceless and stupid things happened, untimely and pointless deaths occurred. Then as now, in the church, and in every profession, however much respected, there was also stupidily and gracelessness and all those things that make life sometimes so furstrating. The other doctor in town, Doc Conners was, to quote my dad's blunt manner of speaking, a drunkard. But on occasion, when dad needed a doctor, and Doc Kinzie wasn't available, he would consult with Doc Conners. I asked him once how he could do that, and he said, "Well, Doc Conners is a pretty good doctor, even if he IS a drunkard!" I gradually accepted the fact that even the best of heroes and healers are only human, and even the weakest and most fallible of all can be helpful to us. When I went to Doc Kinzie for some childhood malady, I did so confidently. It wasn't that he was such a superior physician to the 'drunkard' down the road. But he was part of the extended family that was our church community. And we knew that he loved us. We knew that he cared. We expected to get the best he new how to give us. So: we allowed ourselves to be vulnerable and real in his presence.

All of us who were blessed enough to have been surrounded as children by grown ups who loves us know that (Barry:) "our sense of wholeness is not a sense of completeness-in-ourselves, but a sense of belonging to one another." Doc Kinzie's power to heal had to do with his having been OUR doctor; in a sense, he belonged to us. He could touch, we could trust, because as a whole, we trusted the entire extended family, the very faith community itself, of which he was a part.

Statement of Faith and Purpose

Broadview Community United Church of Christ is
"an encompassing church whose 'compass' is Jesus"

Our purpose is to joyfully experience God's presence in worship,
to faithfully live and proclaim the Good News of the Christ,
and to be ever-attentive to the inspiration of the Spirit.

We believe that "God is still speaking", so we're still listening.
We hear God's call to be earth-friendly, justice-seeking, peacemakers.
We encourage lifelong learning and intergenerational mentoring.
We listen to people's honest questions & doubts
as well as hopes & faith testimonies.
We affirm each person's unique, God-given strengths.
With unity, we celebrate our diversity
in religious background, sexual orientation, race, age, and ability.

Creatures Lowly and Majestic

My minister friend Thomas took Whipper, his miniature dachshund to church again last Sunday. His sermon was about unconditional love. Right there in front of God and the whole congregation, he let Whipper slobber all over his face with abundant wet kisses. I know, I know: happiness is a warm puppy. And watching a bald eagle in flight can make us break out with goose bumps. And giving a few dollars to "save the whales" is a righteous thing to do.

But there are also far more humble, even obnoxious critters among God's creatures, far less easy to love. The poet Theodore Roethke once boasted, "I can love a slug." Can you?

The Bible, in general, is rather fond of lowly creatures, though hard on snakes for some reason. Birds tend to be more favorably looked upon, and astonishingly plentiful: turtle doves, ravens, eagles, certainly. Long before they stood for mighty patriot dreams of Americans, eagles in the Bible represented all-encompassing kind of might, that of God herself (God is compared to a mother eagle). We're told that it was a dove which represented the third person of the Holy Trinity at Jesus' baptism. But in Bible times as well as now, the dove's first cousin, the pigeon, was more commonly spotted. Could the Holy Spirit actually have been accompanied by a slightly-fatter-than-a-dove pigeon? (I can still hear an ex-boyfriend of mine dismissively referring to pigeons as "airborn rats"- apologies to those of you who have pet rats and love them!) Other negatively-connotated pigeon-phrases come to mind: "pigeon-toed. Pigeon-brained. Stool pigeon. Pigeon-chested. Have you even once ever heard of the stout heart of a pigeon, or of a pigeon hero?" (P. Uschuk). There's even a website for pigeon kickers.

But guess what? God created over five hundred pigeon species! Due to human overkill, some are now endangered, some already extinct. "Among the present-day 200+ breeds of domestic pigeons, there are as many as 1250 differ3ent varieties, including such exotics as pouters, tumblers, fantails, nuns, priests, archangels, trumpeters, and homing or carrier pigeons. Someone out there must love them a lot to have created and sustained so many kinds! Of course, we humans have also killed off the pigeon's natural predators - the wolf, hawk, falcon, fox, and ferret, all of which once feasted on the now more overpopulated kind! Pigeons are the sole members of the avain world who - like we who are mammals, produce milk for their young. Pigeon pairs can sometimes be spotted mating smack-dab in the middle of the street. Like all passionate couples, they are completely oblivious to all else. Cursing drivers may or may not swerve to avoid hitting them. But pigeons, it would seem, can't stop loving even to save their own lives.

Just "flying rats"? Well, what if they are? Jan S. will be glad to tell you that rats are among the most intelligent of animals! Rats were once the favorite of the Buddha himself. I have to admit that I'm grateful for Dennis H's pied piper ability to send them forth rather than bring them hither, but hey, that's just me. Both pigeons and rats are hardy and adaptable. So are cockroaches and coyotes. (Uschuck:) "They're survivors. And it may just be that they resemble us too closely for us ever to appreciate their beauty or admit their rightful place in the natural world."